Kópakonan
by professionalprimadonna
Summary: Henry Jekyll had always loved the old Selkie legends. But he had never believed in them. Until now. Warning: Mention of rape, forced marriage and pregnancy, abuse and discrimination. Also, Hyde is androgynous here.


Henry Jekyll tilted his head, as he read the passage:

"_The Faeroese know the legend of the Kópakonan, the Seal Woman. The lore has it, that seals are the reborn spirits of humans, who drowned themselves in the sea. Once a year, on the twelfth night of the year, they are allowed to shed their seal skin and go onto land as humans to amuse themselves with song and dance. In the morning, they slip back into their seal skins and return to the sea."_

The article went on with an exemplary tale from one specific island:

A farmer heard of the lore and went to watch the seals that night, to see if it was true. He saw that it was and stole the skin of a beautiful seal lady. As he refused to give it back, despite her pleading, she had no choice than to follow him and become his wife. So she lived in that forced marriage with him and had several children with him. And because he was a douche, he kept the seal skin locked away and always carried the key around, so she couldn't get it back. But one day, he forgot the key at home and when he realised it and came back, the seal lady was already gone and back with her seal husband, because obviously she'd had a life, before some twat had abducted and force married her. But a few years later, the farmer and some of his friends decided to go seal hunting in a specific cave. Before the hunt, he had a dream, where his former wife appeared and warned him not to kill her seal husband and family. And of course, because he was an arsehole, he proceeded to kill them all and kept the bull seal's head and the flippers of the baby seals. The Kópakonan, rightfully enraged, cursed him and everybody else on the island to die a horrible death, until there were enough dead people to lock hands and form a chain around the island.

"… _And to this day it is said, when someone dies by drowning or falling off a cliff, that the people of Kalsoy know that the Kópakonan's revenge is not yet complete."_

Henry clapped the book shut and shook his head.

He felt bad for the seal woman and her family.

Being a woman who had drowned herself had to be hard enough on its own. But then, just when she had found happiness with another seal, she had to be tormented by such terrible events! To be coerced into a relationship by some arsehole, who then proceeded to kill your loved ones! Baby seals no less! Innocent, cute little baby seals, who got brutally maimed out of spite, because her mother had dared to choose her actual family over the arsehole, who had forced her to marry him!

Sure, it was just a folk tale, but this was just too much!

He needed a walk. A good, old walk at the sea side, to catch some of that good, old sea breeze.

As he walked along the strand, he reflected on how different life here was from the city. He didn't regret moving to the small village in the highest north of Scotland. Sure, it wasn't as exciting as faraway London, but it was peaceful and quiet and the people were nice in their way. Besides, he was the only doctor around here. People relied on him and it felt good. Everyone knew each other here and he knew all of his patients. They got along. It felt … _not_ lonely.

Of course there were some bitter memories. Memories that he never spoke of.

He sighed, sat on a rock and looked out to the sea. It was a windy day and the sea was wild here in the north.

It looked powerful. Wide. Free. _Inviting_.

It was eerie how inviting the ocean was. Perhaps it was nice … cold and untamed, endless room and freedom. It was so easy to relate to the people, who had chosen its watery embrace rather than a dry death at land …

But before he could spiral further into dark thoughts, he heard a moan. He looked around, but couldn't see anyone. Huh. With a shrug he turned his attention back to the sea.

Probably just the wind. It howled quite a bit here.

_Maybe I should go back_, he thought and stood up.

But then there was another moan, louder this time.

Alright, that was definitely _not_ the wind.

"Hello? Is anyone out here?", he shouted.

The response was a pained cry. It sounded like a boy's voice.

Henry followed it to a hidden, rocky bay. After a few minutes of search, he finally found the owner of the voice.

…

To his surprise, it was a brunette girl and she was completely naked, to his embarrassment.

She was clutching her ankle and groaning in pain.

So he gave himself a mental slap. _Pull yourself together, Henry! You're a doctor and she needs help!_

"Are you alright?", he called out to her.

She jumped at the sound of his voice and quickly covered her chest, when she saw him.

"Don't worry, I mean you no harm!", he assured her, while approaching cautiously.

But she didn't seem to buy it, just curled in on herself and scowled.

"Who are you?", she snarled suspiciously. "How did you find this bay? Humans aren't supposed to find it!"

_What the hell does she mean by that? Oh, never mind. I can ask her later._

"Don't be afraid, I'm a doctor", he told her, "I heard you and wanted to help."

"A doctor?" Her acid green eyes narrowed. "And you really just want to help?"

He frowned. "If you think what I suspect you're thinking, I promise your suspicions are unfounded. Just let me help you. Your ankle needs medical attention and you need to get somewhere warm."

"I feel neither heat nor cold", she replied indifferently. "But … do you really mean it?"

"I promise", Henry responded earnestly, "I just want to help and do my duty as a doctor."

It seemed to work, as she relaxed considerably and allowed him to come closer. When he had reached her, he cave her his coat to cover herself and provide some warmth.

Now he could finally focus on her ankle, which was obviously broken.

"Did you slip on the rocks?", he asked, and added: "Where are your clothes? What were you doing out here at this time of the year anyway? It's January, the sea is just as freezing as the land!"

"It's not your concern!", she snapped, "You wouldn't believe it anyway. And my clothing is over there." She pointed to a nearby rock.

He went over to fetch it. But when he held it up, he gaped. "A seal skin?!"

"Yes!", she snapped, "_My_ skin! Give it back!"

His frown deepened. "I will. Once I have treated your ankle. It's broken and as long as that's the case, I'm afraid you have to stay with me."

She began to howl with rage and tried to stand up. But since she couldn't stand, she fell back down and her angry howling became pained.

His heart hurt, when she attempted to hide away in his coat and began to sob.

"Now, now", he spoke softly and patted her back. "I won't keep you longer than necessary, I promise."

He picked her up bridal style and carried her off.

…

Once there, he went to get her some clothes. Sadly, since she was so tiny, he had nothing that fit her. So all he could do was hope that she wouldn't be too bothered by wearing oversized clothing.

"Alright, Miss. I'm afraid I have-"

"I'm not a Miss", she cut him off. Then she spread her legs to reveal …

"Oh", Henry breathed.

"What's the matter? Never seen a hermaphrodite before?"

"No. As a matter of fact I have not."

"Whatever. But just for the record, my name is Edward Hyde, so it's 'Sir' and 'Mister' to you!"

The doctor frowned. "I don't see how you have earned the honorific 'Sir', _Mr. _Hyde", he retorted coolly and handed him the clothes. "Now do get dressed. Just because I'm a doctor doesn't mean I'm comfortable talking to naked people."

Hyde huffed and put on the shirt and pullover. He hissed in pain, when the other put a plaster cast on his ankle and growled angrily, when being told that it would take at least a month to heal.

The rudeness frustrated Henry – he was just trying to help! – but when he saw the genuine distress in the other's eyes, he swallowed another cold remark.

"I have a vacant room, where you can sleep", he offered gently.

"Whatever", the brunette muttered. "Where is my skin?"

"It's right here", Henry told him and picked it up. "I will hang it up in the hallway, where you can see it. However", he added, when the brunette's face brightened up, "I will hang it onto the highest hook. Just to make sure you don't sneak away, before I can be sure that your ankle has healed properly."

Both of them knew that there it would be out of Hyde's reach.

Which promptly made the young one burst into tears.

…

When Henry went to bed, he thought about the events of the day and about the small brunette, who was now sleeping in his guest room.

This was all very messed up.

And it was a real shame that the … _boy_ was so resentful.

Henry had never met an androgynous person before and he was genuinely curious.

Unfortunately, he was also attracted.

He had seen the brunette naked and liked the sight more than he was comfortable with.

Hyde had feminine hips, a small waist and a feminine face, yet his body was strong. Then there were those perfect breasts that Henry struggled hard not to think about. His voice was husky and as androgynous as the rest of him. His hair was long, wavy and café noir brown, contrasting milk white skin.

Henry had never known that this was his type, until he had seen it. And it had been so hard to be professional and not stare at that perfect body like a total creep. No one liked to be leered at, especially not by someone whose help they needed! That was disgusting!

And it wasn't even the only thing. There was something unnatural about the brunette (and he did not mean his body, there was nothing unnatural about that!). He had so many questions!

But he also was resolved to stick to his promise and not keep him around for longer than necessary. Even though he really wanted to …

Henry groaned and buried his face in his pillow.

_Those will be long, long weeks!_

A part of him hoped, that his patient would continue acting like a brat, so it would be easier to part with him eventually.

…

Over the next weeks, Hyde's ankle healed just like it was supposed to.

But overall he wasn't faring well. Every day Henry caught him look out to the sea longingly, pining away and crying bitterly.

Henry felt horrible for him. But at the same time he didn't want him to leave just yet. He had so many questions to the small brunette.

Hyde didn't answer all of them, but some.

After some prying, he told him that he was a Selkie. Henry hadn't believed it at first, but Hyde had provided irrefutable points and he had to admit defeat.

After answering some questions about how it was being a seal, the brunette finally agreed to talk about himself. The brunette had become a seal after drowning himself, more than 400 years ago. At his birth he had been thought to be a normal girl and been named Máiri. But once it had become apparent that he _wasn't_ a girl, they had … well, treated him the way unusual children had been treated in the late 16th century. At some point the abuse had become too much and he had flung himself off a cliff into the sea at the age of eighteen.

"I just couldn't take the beatings, insults and murder attempts anymore. I saw no point in living on and I thought that on the bottom of the sea no one would be able to hurt me."

"That's terrible!", Henry had asked in horror.

Hyde had smiled bitterly. "Not to them. To them _I_ was terrible. Devil's child, changeling, spawn of Hell, Antichrist … I've heard it all."

When Henry had informed him that he didn't regard him as anything of that sort, Hyde had rewarded him with the most beautiful smile.

And it had been so hard not to kiss those gorgeous lips.

…

He was happy in the sea, he said. And he was so adept in modern English, because he hung out with younger Selkies a lot. He still remember the old tongue, though. As proof, he proceeded to speak a few sentences in said tongue, but went back to modern English, when he saw Henry's confused expression. He was from here, but had come around a lot over the centuries. At some point he had decided, that he wanted to be Edward Hyde, rather than Máiri NicDhómhnaill.

When the blond asked him, if he knew that Faeroese folk tale he had read about, he nodded.

"To us Selkies it's a cautionary tale not to trust humans. I actually met her once. We bonded over the shit humans put us through. I'm surprised that you know the tale, though."

Henry blushed. "I read about it in a folk tale book. Stop laughing!", he snapped, when Hyde started to cackle.

The blond puffed his cheeks and pouted, making the brunette laugh even more.

…

"Do you …" Henry was afraid to ask this, because he was afraid of the answer. But he had to know. "… have a family?"

At hearing this question, Hyde immediately burst into tears.

"… I guess that's a yes."

The brunette nodded and cried harder.

Henry handed him a paper tissue, comforted him and tried to ignore how his own heart was currently shattering into pieces.

Later that night, he was the one who cried.

Of course. How could he have been so self-centred as to hope, that this 400-year-old Selkie _didn't_ have a life of his own?!

_Fuck, I'm even more of an egotistical arsehole than I thought!_

…

In the morning, when both were calm enough, Hyde told him a little about his family.

"I have a husband – the most wonderful man you could meet. We met about thirty years ago and bonded over being ostracised. Then we fell in love and married and that was okay, because the sea doesn't care about sexes."

Hyde sighed dreamily. "He's the most handsome man in the world, he's intelligent, sensible, profound, a real sweetheart and we just have so much in common!"

Henry didn't want to hear it. But he didn't want to be a total dick, so he swallowed his bitterness and pretended to like what he heard.

"That's wonderful. I'm glad you finally found happiness. It's just sad that you had to wait for it so long."

Well, at least that wasn't a lie.

The brunette's smile became bitter.

"Actually, I've had a family before. But that was 200 years ago. Then some bastard stole my skin and forced me to marry him and the rest was just like in the Faeroese folk tale. Minus the curse, of course. I just drove him into madness. My skin was stolen many times more during the last 400 years, but most of them let me go, when they saw that I'm a hermaphrodite. But some didn't care and proceeded to abduct, use and knock me up, like that's all I'm good for."

Henry's heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

_That explains his apprehension towards me. Damn, why is the world so cruel!_

The Selkie continued: "I thought I would never be happy again, until I met _him_. He is all that matters to me and I want to spend the rest of my existence with him. I … I just love him so much!"

Henry's heart shattered into even smaller pieces.

…

"What I forgot to ask earlier", he spoke up at dinner, "May I know the name of the lucky man whom you married?"

Hyde tilted his head and looked at him suspiciously. But then he seemed to decide, that it was safe.

"His name is Hastie Lanyon."

Henry's eyes widened.

Suddenly images flashed before his eyes.

Images of an auburn-haired young man with mismatched eyes, one pale blue, the other amber. A boy with a radiant, sweet smile, who had once been his friend. Then he had drowned himself, just like Edward. He had jumped from the very same cliffs.

And now these two were …

"Speaking of names", Hyde stated, pulling him out of his stupor, "You never told me _yours_, Doctor."

He gulped. "My name is Henry Jekyll … Hastie … he was my best friend."

Now it was Hyde's turn to stare. "Henry Jekyll", he breathed, "No way!"

…

They spent the rest of the night sitting on Hyde's bed, talking about Lanyon.

Hyde said that he was fine and happier, where he was now. It wasn't hard to believe for Henry.

Turned out that the auburn-haired man had told Hyde quite a lot about him.

And the brunette seemed to be very interested in _his_ side of the story.

The blond had so many fond memories of his dearest friend.

But there also were bad ones.

Like the fight they'd had shortly before Lanyon had committed suicide.

"I called him so many terrible things", Henry confessed quietly. "And he killed himself just a few days later. I never got to apologise properly. And I never got to tell him …"

The lump in his throat prevented him from speaking any further.

Hyde was looking at him strangely, his bright green eyes knowing.

"You loved him."

Henry nodded and turned away.

Hyde took his hand. "You blame yourself, don't you? Listen, Henry. He didn't kill himself, because of the things you said."

Henry looked up. "He did not?"

The brunette shook his head. "No. He killed himself for other reasons. I'm in no position to tell you, why. Just know this: apart from that fight, he told me nothing but good about you. And …" A blush painted that milky face. "I'm pleasantly surprised to find that you fit his description."

Henry blinked. "Really?

Hyde nodded. "For example, he said that you would never force someone to do something they don't want. Not to sound like a narcissist, but I know that you want me, Henry. I have seen it in your eyes. Don't think I haven't noticed, how you force yourself not to constantly stare at me. But somehow you manage not to. And you never touched me or even so much as flirted at me. I …" He blushed harder. "You're the first human to take my skin _and_ treat me with basic decency. You could have done unspeakable things to me, like all the others before, but you chose to respect my boundaries instead. You always act professionally towards me. I'm really thankful for that."

…

It wasn't long until the day came, that Henry evaluated the latest x-ray scans and found, that Hyde's ankle had healed perfectly. And the tiny brunette could walk just fine.

Knowing that he had to live up to his promise, he went into the hallway and took the seal coat off the hook.

It was so hard.

But he had kept him away from home more than long enough.

And he refused to be like the arsehole from the legend.

…

He found him sitting at the window, gazing out to the sea, as always.

"Edward?"

The brunette gasped, when the seal skin was placed into his hands.

Henry smiled gently. "I did promise to let you go, as soon as I could be sure that your ankle has healed properly, didn't I?"

…

Henry felt a little better, when he was allowed to accompany the Selkie back to the bay.

He looked away, when Hyde stripped out of the borrowed clothes. But then Hyde's throaty voice told him: "Turn around. I know you want to watch, when I leave."

Henry braced himself and turned around.

He couldn't help but blush at how beautiful the Selkie was.

Hyde allowed him to look at his human form a last time, before taking his seal skin and slipping inside. In an instant, he began to morph and became a white seal with dark brown dots on his coat.

Henry gasped and stared in awe.

The seal looked at him with his black seal eyes, before crawling towards the sea and finally vanishing into the waves. A moment later, the seal resurfaced and this time he wasn't alone. A second seal with a red-brown coat was with him and they were leaping around each other, bellowing happily.

Henry knew, who it was and couldn't help but smile.

Lanyon had waited for his partner the entire time.

He saw the seals look towards him and waved.

They waved back with their flippers, before diving back into the ocean.

He looked onto the sea for a while, before picking up the left-behind clothes and going home.

…

Once there, he went to the kitchen and sank onto a chair.

It was better this way.

After a life full of suffering, Lanyon had finally found someone to love and who loved him back. It had only been right to let the love of his afterlife return to him.

Hyde and Lanyon deserved to live a happy and free life as seals. That was their life. That was where they belonged.

They were happy together. And he was happy for them.

So why was his heart broken?

Why was he feeling so hollow and so much lonelier than before?

Henry buried his face in his arms and sobbed.

It had been the right thing to do and he didn't regret it, but it _hurt_!

…

He awoke in the late evening.

When he sat up, his back was stiff. Damn, had he cried himself to sleep on the table?

With a groan he stood up. Time to follow his usual evening routine.

But when he wanted to leave the kitchen, there was a scratching at the window.

Weird.

Curious as to what it might be, he went to look.

He opened the window just in time to see a seagull fly away.

Strange.

Just as he wanted to close the window again, he noticed, that there was something lying on the window sill. When he took it inside into the light, he saw that it was a piece of wood.

But something was written on it in an antiquated handwriting:

"_Come to the beach where you found me, next year, on the 12__th__ night of January. For this is the only time when we can become human again. I will not take 'no' for an answer._

_\- E. Hyde."_

Henry stared at the message incredulously.

Then he smiled.


End file.
